Shepard and Liara: Omega Adventures
by armondram77
Summary: CH 5 FINALLY UP! Commander Damon Shepard has received a distress signal originating from Omega in the Terminus Systems. Along with his asari lover, Liara T'Soni, the commander heads out to investigate; little does he know that they are headed straight for a trap. This is my first fanfic so please R/R. Constructive Criticism welcome Rated M for Violence Language and
1. A Stressed Commander

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect. Thanks to Bioware for the Mass Effect series

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so bear with me. This idea's been rattling in my head for a while and its good to finally put it on paper, so to speak. This is a post-Arrival and LOSB adventure involving my head canon Damon Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni Rated M: for violence, language, and sexual encounters.

Genre: Drama/Adventure and Romance

Title: **Shepard and Liara: Omega Adventures **

Ch. 1: **A Stressed Commander**

**Normandy SR-2**

Commander Damon Shepard strolled though the Combat Information Center, or CIC, as was his usual routine, during the nights aboard the Normandy. A skeleton crew was operating the ship so only a handful of crew members were stationed on the command deck. Shepard like the quiet, unlike during the daytime hours when the CIC was abuzz with the crew carrying about their duties; gave him time to think, which was sorely needed at times like this.

Three hundred thousand dead Batarians laid on Shepard's conscious. The event was a recent wound, it had only been a few weeks since the mission that blew the Bahak system to hell. Admiral Hackett had presented Shepard with information that one of his Alliance deep cover operatives, Dr. Amanda Kenson, had be captured in the batarian system after finding evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Hackett asked Shepard to go in alone to rescue Kenson and confirm the evidence. Shepard had rescued Dr. Kenson and confirmed her evidence, but it was revealed that by leaving the Reaper device, dubbed Object Rho in an open environment, Kenson and her associates had become indoctrinated. Shepard fought off Kensons guards, only to be overtaken by them and knocked unconscious. Kenson held Shepard for two days leaving almost no time before the Reapers arrival. The Commander had no choice but to activate Kensons original plan: activating massive mass effect engines onboard an asteroid, hurling it into the Bahak systems Mass Relay, destroying it. It had been previously thought that the Mass Relays had been indestructible, but the doctor had reasoned that being the Relays were the most powerful Mass Effect engines in the galaxy, nobody had been willing to risk the consequences of destroying one. Kenson theorized that destroying a Relay releases massive amounts of energy, resembling a supernova and destroying the star system it occupied.

Shepard knew this while activating the asteroids engines, and he had tried to warn the Batarian colony in the system but the indoctrinated Kenson cut his transmission before it could be beamed to them. Shepard himself had barely been picked up by the Normandy, with the Normandy itself barely making a Relay jump out of the system before the asteroid crashed into the Mass Relay, detonating it. Now it was three weeks later and the Commander still felt haunted by what he felt was effectively a mass murder.

_It was for the good of the galaxy._ Damon had thought at the time. But slowly, over the weeks in the aftermath of the mission, that justification felt like a sham. All of his military career, with the Alliance and with his Spectre service, Damon had tried to save as many lives as he could. Sure there were times that there was collateral damage in firefights, stray bullets hitting a civilian or circumstances out of his immediate control, that led to the loss of a life, but never like this, in this magnitude.

"Fuck man!" Shepard cursed aloud as he slammed his fists into the rail holding him from falling from his position overlooking the galaxy map at the rear of the CIC. The few crew-members that were at their stations for the night, looked upon their commanding officer with concern, but he paid them no real mind. He was too lost in his own thoughts to care what they thought, even though the crew cared deeply for their commander and knew of the stress that he had been put through.

It seemed like an eternity but Damon finally stirred from his thoughts and headed for the elevator. As the metal doors of the elevator slid shut, and he punched the key to his private quarters, a familiar synthesized voice came over the elevators PA system.

"Commander, my biometric scans of your person indicate high levels of stress. Are you not feeling well?'' asked EDI, the Normandy's AI. Shepard could almost hear concern coming from the AI's feminine electronic voice

"Honestly EDI, I'm not ok at all." Shepard admitted to EDI "But your concern is welcome"

"Noted Commander. Anything I can do for you?"

"Nothing right now, EDI, thanks for asking. Goodnight" Damon said as the elevator came to a stop and opened. Damon stepped out of the elevator and waved his omni-tool in front of the door to unlock the Loft, the nickname given to the Commander's quarters by the fitting-yard workers.

"Play" Damon said as he entered his chambers. Beethoven's 5th Symphony started to play lightly from his room's stereo. Some of his peers thought that Shepard's taste for early 19th century Earth music was bizarre and outdated, but the musical genius of that eras musicians always soothed him. As a matter of fact, the asari had found one of late 20th century Voyager space probes that had been launched by humanity in its early explorations of space. Although the Asari thought that the space probe had been crudely constructed, they also thought that the two pieces of humanity's music, by Mozart and Beethoven, the asari thought their pieces were melodiously sublime.

_I need to relax..Way too stressed out_ thought Damon, as he ran his fingers through his short cut black hair. But he knew that relaxation would probably not reach him tonight. The ghosts of Bahak would grant the weary warrior no sleep; no reprieve from the constant assault to his conscious. Making his way to his bed, he threw himself on it, akin to a child throwing a tantrum, burying his head in his pillow. Turning to his side he saw a picture that made his heart flutter, ever so lightly

On the nightstand next to Shepard's bed was a photo of Dr. Liara T'Soni, an asari and the woman who had broke through the hardness in his heart. Losing your family and friends in a batarian pirate raid can tend to make one closed to emotional attachment. Mindior had been burned into the core of his very being and he had carried the scars with him all his life. Liara had helped him find love, something which the Spectre sorely needed with the trials he has been put through these last few years.

Liara...She was an all consuming thought rattling in his brain.

_I have to call her...I need to hear her voice _Damon thought. _Those beautiful eyes oughta calm me down enough for some sleep at least. _Getting up, he shook some of the weariness from him, with warm thoughts of his love fluttering in his head. Shepard had a communications hub hidden behind his model ship case on the clear wall above his desk.

He looked over at his desk and noticed that his personal terminal was flashing, meaning a message had arrived for the Commander.

_Great, either its gonna be more random extranet junk ads, or possibly more Batarian threats _thought Damon as he headed over to the terminal, _I will check this before trying to reach Liara._ Activating it, he saw he had two unread messages. One had indeed been junk mail, how junk mail wasn't filtered through the Normandy's system was beyond him. He thought that a military vessel would have better screening,

The second message caught his eye though. Unlike most other email's in his private terminal where the sender's carrier code could be used to locate the origin of the message. This message was probably sent from a public extranet terminal, not entirely rare since beings with unscrupulous or illegal activities used extranet terminals to avoid being directly traced.

Knowing this, Damon was weary of what the message would contain, but his curiosity eventually got the best of him. He opened the message and at first it was blank.

_Great, another bum message. Knew it. Slag it, I'm calling Liara. _Shepard thought. As he turned around to activate his communication hub, a video feed hidden in the message sprang to life.

"Commander Shepard, I am Loxium Vienda," a male Turian spoke, " I lead a small private militia, the Omega Defenders, in the Omega Nebula. Currently we are engaged in a proxy war with Batarian pirates in the sector, and one of my lieutenants has been kidnaped."

Damon furrowed his brow at this. Batarians, already being brought back into a conflict with them so soon after the Bahak incident. He didnt know if he should enter this one. It seemed like a bad idea; he had already heard reports that the Batarian Hegemony was out for him, seeing his actions as state sponsored terrorism on behalf of the Alliance. But the Commander could never refuse a call for help

"If you choose to come to our aid, we will have an envoy waiting in the club Afterlife on Omega. Do not attempt to warn your associate Aria T'Loak, we would like to keep this in-house and discreet as possible, More details will entail at our meeting. Once at the club our envoy will approach you. If you are a no show by tomorrow at 2100 hours, we will know that you will not respond to our pleas" the turian Vienda finished.

Damon sat in his chair running his fingers through his hair again, he felt that he didn't need to get entangled with anything involving any batarians, but a call for help was a call for help. He needed more information on the situation and he knew just the person to ask.

"EDI, are you up?" Damon called out in his room. EDI's blue visual representation popped up the instant he spoke

"For you Commander, always. What can I help you with?" EDI's synthesized voice rang out.

"What is our location? Haven't been paying attention to the logs." Damon said with a slight chuckle.

"Minos Wasteland, Arrae system. In geosync orbit above the turian colony on Gellix. Why do you ask Shepard?" EDI questioned

"Wake Joker, and tell him to set course for the Hourglass Nebula, Sowilo system, planet Hagalaz please. Wake me when we arrive."


	2. A Warm Welcome on a Stormy Planet

**Ch. 2: A Warm Welcome On A Stormy Planet**

**Planet Hagalaz, Shadow Broker Command Ship**

Massive computer banks flickered to life as Liara T'Soni entered the Shadow Brokers office...her office aboard the weather ship that was the Shadow Brokers headquarters. All sorts of information lit up those displays; statistics on the Turian Hierarchy, fleet movements of the Alliance, current diplomatic missions by the Asari Republics, were all available through the Shadow Broker networks.

Liara looked through her files, trying to decide where to get started for today. It had only been about a month since Shepard and her had deposed the previous Shadow Broker and Liara had assumed his role. During that time, she had been busy making sense of all the vast systems, getting adjusted to the strenuous hours of work and co-opting the network to suit her needs. Another job was searching for clues to how to defeat the Reapers, ancient sentient starships hell bent on destroying all space faring races in their 50,000 year cycles. That was the only important mission at the moment; word had gotten out of Shepards exploits in batarian space in the meantime.

_Over three hundred thousand batarian colonists dead, a whole system destroyed. I can only imagine how Shepard is feeling. _Liara thought. She felt empathic for Shepard, she understood his compassion for life. Its one of his most attractive attributes.

"Dr, Tsoni, you have an incoming message on the vid-com" the Shadow Brokers spherical VI drone, affectionately named Glyph by the asari, chimed behind her.

"Thank you Glyph" Liara said dismissively. She still was buried in the mornings reports from her agents in field across the galaxy. Reports from the Terminus Systems were up, batarian slaver and pirate raids on Alliance colonies were up.

"Glyph, make a note to advise agents in the Terminus Systems to assist Alliance colonies, if feasible."

"Noted Dr., there still is a transmission waiting on the quantam communicator."

"Yes, Glyph, I'm trying to finish morning reports." she retorted annoyed but started toward her communication hub regardless, the drone could get rather incessant at times, which usually meant something was possibly important enough to garner curiosity.

Liara moved herself to her communication hub, she had set up various quantum entanglement devices so she could talk with some of her top lieutenants in the field. Only her friend and confidant, a drell named Feron, along with a select few operatives knew the true identity of the Shadow Broker and she enjoyed having face-time with those few. Tapping a few keys to set up a secure link, a familiar voice flowed through the comm terminal

"Well, well if it isn't my Blue Goddess." Shepards voice rang through the terminal, sending a shiver up Liara's spine. She enhanced the signal since visuals were distorted due to interference by Hagalaz's stormy atmosphere.

"Hello Damon, I've missed you." Liara chimed, taking in Damon features. It had been about a month since Liara and Shepard had stormed the Shadow Broker's base and deposed the previous Broker. Liara could tell that stress and his guilt over the deaths of the batarian colonists had taken there toll on him. Slight bags hung under Shepards eyes, indicating he hadn't been sleeping too well.

"Damon, you can't let your feelings get the best of you, I can tell by looking that you haven't been sleeping well" Liara noted with concern in her voice,

"I know, I know. It's been rough." Shepard acknowledged, knowing he could never hide anything from his love, "I will try to get more sleep. But the reason why I called..." Shepard trailed off

"What can I do for you? I was just going over morning reports."

"Are you available? The Normandy just established orbit over Hagalaz. I have a mission I need your opinion on."

Liara was taken aback. She hadn't expected Shepard to be dropping by.

_Something must be bothering him, I know he wasn't involved in anything too critical in the Terminus Systems at moment. Reports had placed the Normandy in the Minos Wasteland mopping up a pirate gang_s. Liara thought to herself

"I'm always free for you Shepard, come on down." Liara stated, playfully giving a come hither motion with her finger.

"Oh, now you are just teasing me" Shepard chuckled, "I will be down in the shuttle in five"

The comm signal was terminated, but by then Liara had already left her comm station. She hurried over to her bathroom to make sure she didn't look like a mess. She sometimes neglected her appearance, since she would work for hours with little to no breaks and very few hours of sleep. This left her looking less than stellar at times. Shepard coming to see her motivated her to freshen up however.

* * *

Shepard sat in the shuttle, swaying with the turbulence of Hagalaz's stormy atmosphere.

_Loved Liara's surprised look when I ttold her the Normandy was already in orbit, _Shepard gathered with a smile. He did love surprising Liara. He had been wanting to stop by for a visit, it had been a long month of no real contact with Liara. Sure they sent messages back and forth, or he would call looking for intel, but he hadn't been physically near her since their night together after deposing the Shadow Broker.

_I've missed her. I've needed her._ Damon reckoned. With the renewal of their relationship, he had confirmed what he already knew. He was in love...love with the asari Liara T'Soni. Her rejection when the Commander had asked for her to join his suicide squad to assault the Collectors had stung, to say the least. He had hoped she would join without question, as he believed that they had developed a special relationship after growing closer in the months following Sovereign's destruction.

The shuttle shook violently, shuffling Commander around a bit, breaking his thought process.

"Sorry Commander, winds a little rough down here and its my first shuttle flight since coming off sick leave." said Ensign Reed. He was a former Cerberus operative, defected after Shepard cut ties with the organization to stay aboard the Normandy. After the rescue of crew-members that had been abducted by the Collectors, some had needed medical treatment and some time to recuperate from the ordeal

"No worries, Reed. A warning before getting tossed across the shuttle would be appreciated though." Damon called out with a snicker.

_No need to worry drill the guy. He is a good pilot after all._ Shepard surmised. "ETA to the Shadow Broker base?"

"Docking now sir"

"Good man." Damon called out as he made way to the shuttles main hatch. He breathed deeply, his heart was beating slightly faster than usual and he was perspiring slightly on his brow.

_I can fight Krogan hand-to-hand without flinching, but simply seeing the woman I love throws me hard to port. Christ alive. _Damon lamented to himself as the door to the shuttle opened.

It took a few minutes but Shepard found the Shadow Broker office where Liara had been waiting to greet him. She wore her blue and white armor with the armored skirt, she really didn't have too many other changes of clothes that she liked to wear while working. The armor was comfortable to say the least. Damon on the other hand was dressed a bit more casually.

"It's odd to see you in your civilian clothes, Shepard" Liara remarked when she turned to greet him as he walked into the room.

"What? I wasn't expecting to run into too much gunfire" Shepard laughed, looking himself up and down in a joking fashion. He was in typical Earth wear, a pair of loose fit jeans, a white T-shirt, with a dark leather jacket that had the N7 logo ornamented on the left side.

Liara liked how relaxed and casual Shepard was being, but she knew that just beneath the surface f his swagger, he was hurting. She looked at him, his dark brown skin seemed slightly paler, than the last time they had been together and once again she saw bags underneath his eyes.

"How are you Shepard, really?" Liara asked with concern in her voice

"Honestly, not well." Damon admitted, strolling over to a computer bank, staring blindly at it."Its my fault three hundred thousand batarian colonists are dead. I had no real choice, it was either blow the relay or let the Reapers waltz through the galaxy's back door."

Liara moved over to Shepard was standing, bringing her arms around him in a loving embrace saying, "I know you did what you could, love. Don't blame yourself so much, you were captured and held for almost two days."

"Doesn't make me feel any less guilty, but thanks Liara. I don't know what I would do without you." Shepard said as he relaxed into the embrace of his lover. He turned around to look at her, look into those beautiful blue eyes he loved.

"See something you like?" Liara jested, matching her Commander's stare without batting an eye.

"Possibly" was all Shepard could reply as he pulled the asari closer, his lips lightly brushing against hers. Her scent was intoxicating, she smelt of fresh wildflowers in spring. Damon tightened his embrace and Liara didn't fight it. She loved nestling close to the human, feeling safe in his strong arms.

"I've missed you" Shepard said, breaking their kiss, his voice barely audible, resting his forehead against hers. It was these moments he cherished, being able to be vulnerable, human, when so much of the time he had to be the confident and inspiring leader.

"I've missed you too, Damon. It seems like we never get time for us, we are always consumed by our duties." Liara answer, in her own quiet whisper, not willing to break the tender moment. " I love you"

Shepard knew his heart probably skipped a beat hearing those words fall from Liara's lips. As long as she loved him, he would make it through whatever the universe threw at him, Reapers or worse. g

"I love you too Liara, and I always will." Shepard replied, kissing her lightly on the lips as he ended their embrace

"I always hate breaking up tender moments, but I did come because I needed some intel." Shepard said, remembering that he hadn't come to Hagalalz just to meet up with T'Soni, no matter how much enjoyed it.

"Always the soldier, huh, no rest for the weary?" Liara teased "You said something about a mission?"

"I received a transmission about a private militia...the Omega Defenders or something like that. I guess their commander was captured by batarian pirates" Shepard explained

"Hmm batarians...You do know that the Hegemony probably wants your head on a platter, especially, after recent developments. I've gotten word that the batarians might be gearing up for war with the Alliance over this incident." Liara cautioned

"Hackett mentioned the same thing. That's not what we need right now, not with the Reapers on their way." Shepard's brow furrowed. He knew what Admiral Hackett said had been correct, war between Earth and Khar'shan, the batarian home world, would weaken the galaxy's chances of surviving the Reaper invasion. The Council races, would be reluctant to aid the humans or batarians, on top of an galactic invasion.

"Do you have anything on them Liara?" Shepard inquired again.

"Hmm, lets see" Liara said hitting a few keys on her console and waiting for the information to load up.

"They seem to be a protection racket protecting colonies, pretty legitimate, no evidence of extortion it seems. That's unusual for a Terminus operation, most deal heavily in extortion, and piracy. Formed in 2180...nothing suspicious it seems from what my sources say. And you know how reliable my sources are" Liara chuckled at the end.

" Oh yes, I know. Those same sources almost killed us getting you set up here, if I recollect." Shepard retorted. He wasn't about to let her win any type f argument, but knew he probably would lose.

"I'm supposed to meet a rep on Omega by 2100 today. What time is it by the way? Been burning it on both ends and honestly I haven't been keeping track of the time." Damon admitted rather bashfully.

"Hmmph why I am not surprised? You know, you are cute when you are worried," Liara said as she affectionately stroked her lovers chin, feeling the bristles of his beard, always fascinated by human hair. "Its currently 0300, sorta early in the standard twenty four hour day.

"Good it shouldn't take terribly too long to get to Omega. Probably like fifteen hours, its only like a few relay jumps. Come with me, babe. It be nice to have a mission, just the two of us." Shepard asked as he tried to give his best puppy dog face but didn't know if it had the desired effect given Liara's reaction of staring at her data feeds. After what seemed like an eternity Liara finally sighed:

"Glyph, encrypt and forward all new messages and reports to my omni-tool while I am off with Shepard"

Shepard couldn't been any happier. He knew that they hadn't been able to spend any real time together since the raid, and the ensuing victory evening together where they reaffirmed their relationship. Liara came around and hugged Damon tightly around his waist. Shepard returned the embrace, lightly showering Liara's forehead with kisses and tickling her head crests.

" Lets get outta here, adventure awaits!" Shepard called out, letting go of Liara and striking a heroic pose, pointing towards the exit. Liara was laughing uncontrollably, clutching her sides.

"Are you only this obnoxious around me or does your crew get to see this side of you?" Liara was able to blurt out between gasps for breath.

"To them I'm Commander Shepard, hero if the Battle of the Citadel, but to you Liara, I'm just Damon Shepard, a man who is in love with a beautiful asari." Damon said, taking Liara's hand leading her out of her office towards the Normandy's shuttle.


	3. The Trap Is Sprung

**A/N: Hey readers. Glad to be done with another chapter. This fan fiction writing is fun stuff. Anyways I only got 1 review for chapter 1 and none for chapter 2. The one I got was appreciated. Please read and review, I'm a fan of constructive criticism and the reviews help me hone my skills. Plus it's good to know y'all like my work**

**Ch 3: The Trap Is Sprung**

**Asteroid Omega**

Criminals always needed a safe haven and for the Terminus Systems, there was no better hideaway Omega. A space station built into the mined out husk of a metallic asteroid, the station housed operations by every major Terminus mercenary group and was home to every type of criminal enterprise illegal in Citadel space.

The Normandy flew through the asteroid's superstructure, weaving close between flaming smokestacks and other starships. Air traffic was tight as usual, and with little to no air traffic controllers, ships had to navigate to docking bays mainly relying on sensors and visual aid. This was not an obstacle for the Normandy's helmsman Jeff "Joker" Moreau.

Joker expertly maneuvered the Normandy through more smokestacks towards the Normandy's designated docking bay. Usually there was a first come first serve basis, but Commander Shepard's vessel had been a regular fixture in the Omega docks after the successful suicide mission.

"The Normandy is docked Commander. Sure you wanna go in there all alone? No backup? I know you are a badass and all but..." Joker said to Damon who was watching his helmsman bring his ship to port.

"Relax Joker, I can handle myself fine. You have seen me in action remember?" Shepard replied with a chuckle

"Actually sir , all I ever see is me savin your ass with some kickass flying" Joker retorted

"I concur Shepard, Jeff and I have saved your life many times over." EDI chimed, helping Joker get the jump on the Commander.

"What is this, ambush Damon day? Man, all bad" Shepard said as he turned to head for the Normandy's airlock and escape both Joker and EDI's mock onslaught. He left the cockpit and turned quickly to his right, opening the decontamination bay doors. Waiting for him in the bay was Liara, in her blue and white combat armor and skirt. With her was another familiar friend with scarred face.

A turian in heavy armor combat armor stood in the corner, checking the scope on his M-97 Viper sniper rifle. The rifle glistened as if it had just been finely cleaned and polished. He wore a targeting visor over his right eye, giving the turian an assassins visage. The turian looked up as he heard Damon's booted footsteps approaching

"Locked and loaded, Shepard. Glad to have T'soni back with us, its gonna be like old times"

"Good to you too, Garrus. We three back together, going on a mission, is just like the days chasing Saren across the galaxy

Saren, the rouge Spectre that Shepard and the crew of the original Normandy had been tasked with stopping. Hearing the name uttered gave Shepard a cold chill. He had seen a lot of himself in that turian during the chase leading up to the Battle of the Citadel. Like Saren, Damon was willing to do whatever was necessary to complete his mission. As a sharp contrast opposed to Saren however, Damon knew that certain lines should never be crossed. Saren had no qualms killing civilians if that's what it would take to get the job done.

"_I'm not like him, never will be" _Shepard thought in the recesses of his mind, but lately he had begun to question that belief.

"Ready to go Shepard?" Garrus buzzed, breaking Damon's line of thoughts

"Yea, lets move." Damon called out. The airlocks to the Normandy opened with a mechanical hiss and the group stepped out into the docking catwalk.

"All right, guys here's how I want to go about this." Shepard began as the team made there way to club Afterlife. "Garrus, I'm sending you and Liara in first to case the place. See if you can spot anything out of the ordinary. I don't know how this could turn out.

"What, expecting trouble? They came to you asking for help." Garrus started, wondering if Shepard was having doubts.

"Like I said, I don't know. I can't put my finger on it, but something feels off. You two can either go together, or separately. I will follow behind you shortly. The envoy will be looking for me, so the two of you should be unnoticed."

"Sounds easy enough Shepard. We will watch your back" Liara said as the group cleared the Omega docking bay. Omega was a dirty, mismatched maze of streets and buildings that architecturally didn't fit together. Lawlessness was the only rule that was prevalent on the station. The refugees and the poorer denizens of the station were caught in the center of criminal activities, which in turn led them to commit criminal acts to survive.

Shepard and his team passed through the shopping district, on the way to Afterlife. The markets were abuzz with the calls of merchants trying to turn peoples attention to their wares. Some sold weapons and weapon modifications, others sold armor components, and still others sold salvaged tech from unknown reaches of space. The whole station smelt of garbage and disillusionment, a smell that seemed to cling to the groups armor like a spiders web.

As the group approached Afterlife, they could hear the heavy bass beats coming from the club. People were lined up outside the club waiting for their turn to get in. An elcor, giant quadrupedal aliens that emoted the feelings before starting a sentence, was acting as a bouncer.

"Ok, this is it. Lets get to it people" Shepard called out. Garrus made his move to separate from the group. Walking away, he turned to see if Liara was joining him.

"I would like to have a word with Shepard, I will join you in a minute Garrus." Liara said. Garrus only nodded and proceeded to the club's entrance from the alley Shepard and his team were in. The turian was aware of the commander and the doctors intimate relationship and knew when the two needed there space.

"Something wrong Liara?" Shepard inquired.

"Nothing, love. Just wanted to tell you to not do anything reckless if things go bad" Liara said, drawing close to Damon.

"Pssh, if I don't get to be reckless once in a while, when will I get to have any fun?" Shepard countered with a snicker, drawing his asari companion in for a kiss. Lips touched and tongues quickly darted into opposing mouths, drawing sharp breaths from both parties involved. As the two lovers separated, Shepard gazed into the asari's sapphire blue eyes. They were the most beautiful things he ever stared at and they always spoke volumes to him.

"Better get going Liara. I need those beautiful blues of yours to keep an eye out for trouble in there." Shepard said, tugging at Liara's heart strings. Liara moved to walk away from Damon but her hand lingered intertwined in his, not obeying her mental commands to let go. After a moment longer, she finally was able to let go and started her walk towards the club.

Shepard strolled around in the alleyway wondering if worry's were founded or if he was just being paranoid. He decided to spend the minutes he had before entering the club more constructively by checking his weapons, he needed all the tools he had primed if this meeting decided to go south. He unhooked his assault rifle, a M-98 Mattock semi-automatic, checking its thermal clip and calibrating the sight to optimum efficiency. The rifle was a nail driver, packing quite a punch and Shepard could effectively use it to stand in for a sniper rifle if need be. Switching from assault rifle to his shotgun, a M-27 Scimitar automatic, he did the same inspection. Noticing that the weapon had no thermal clip, he cursed himself for being careless as he loaded a clip into the ammo chamber. Last but not least was his pistol, a customized M-6 Carnifex. The gun was more of a hand cannon then a pistol since the commander had modified the weapon with an advanced kinetic accelerator, giving the weapon increased penetration and stopping power.

With all of his weapons in order, Shepard reached up to his ear and activated his com-link, making radio contact with his squad.

"Everything clear guys?"

"Situation seems normal, Shepard. I'm up top on the second level, next to the bar. Pretty good view of the whole club. The only thing is that there seems to be more than the average number of batarians in here tonight. Must be some kinda event for them."

"_Great, a club full of batarians. Just what I needed." _Shepard thought to himself.

"I agree, there is a mass of batarians here", Liara confirmed over the radio, "I'm set up on the main level, I'm mingling with a few other asari to stay incognito."

"Good job team. I'm entering the club in thirty seconds" Shepard said exiting the alleyway he made his preparations in and striding up to Afterlife. The elcor bouncer looked over Shepard as he walked up the stairs leading to the club, nodding his head giving Shepard the go ahead into the club.

There were others waiting in line to get into Afterlife and seeing Shepard getting waved through into the club was maddening.

"Hey, we have been standing here for hours and you just waved the last three people through, no problem?" A male human in line called out indignantly. A woman to his right gave him an elbow to the ribs to shut him up.

"Don't you know who that is?" she hissed "That's Commander Shepard, the big Alliance hero that came back from the dead!"

As Shepard headed out of vocal range and into the club's entry hallway, he looked checked the time on his omni-tool, he still had about five minutes til the scheduled meeting time. Walking through the entryway, he passed by a group of humans and turians. They were chatting about recent events; noticing the commander their conversation ceased. Shepard smirked at the effect of his reputation was having on the patrons.

Just as he entered the club he passed by a group of batarians. The batarians eyed Shepard suspiciously but keep their distance. As he passed, one of the batarians signaled the others away. As they left, the one signaling activated his omni-tool's communicator.

"Target acquired. He is entering the club now. Wait til the signal to begin the next phase."

* * *

Garrus continued his surveillance of the club on the second level. True to his word he had almost an eagles eye view of the whole club; all the help he needed to keep his commander and best friend alive. Giving the club another once over, everything looked like the normal Afterlife scene on Omega.

Asari strippers danced on poles while male patrons lustily eyed them and emptying a good days credits to see more skin. The bar was full as per usual; for some people the bottle is the preferred way to escape their life's obstacles. Garrus himself had downed a shot of turian brandy waiting for Shepard to enter the club and to solidify his cover. The club was alive with energy. One detail did strike Garrus as unusual though. The pirate queen of Omega, Aria T'Loak wasn't in her usual private lounge overlooking the club.s

Perking up as he observed the commander enter the club, Garrus set up his targeting visor to track him and marked him as a priority. He moved from his spot by the bar, mirroring Commander Shepard as he walked down on the first story. Nothing was out of place yet. He checked his omni-tools clock.

"_Two minutes til contact. All right. Lets hope Shepard's feeling was wrong; if this goes south it could get real ugly in here real quick."_ Garrus thought to himself. Shepard had now moved to the back of the club, sitting down at a table by himself. He seemed content to wait for whoever he was supposed to meet, which made both Garrus and Liara's job of keeping an eye on him that much easier.

The minutes seemed to slow as they waited for the envoy to show up. Garrus could tell that Shepard was getting impatient as he could see Damon's fingers drumming the table he was at. It was now a minute after the scheduled meeting time, and nobody had approached Shepard yet. Garrus began to have a feeling that something was amiss.

* * *

Liara had been mingling with a few other asari, listening to the latest gossip from a few asari worlds while she kept watch over her bond-mate. She could tell he was becoming impatient. The scheduled meeting time had come and gone, it was now five minutes past 2100 hours. Getting up to leave the asari patrons and make her way closer to Shepard, she passed a few batarians.

"Ok, the signal is about to be given. All units move to block the exits, do not let Shepard escape, civilians can leave. He is alone but that doesn't mean he isn't highly dangerous." One of the batarians said.

Liara didn't hear what the batarians were saying due to the music of the club; as she moved within twenty feet of Shepard. It was then that she noticed the targeting laser hovering over her lovers chest. Shepard had become distracted by a waitress offering drinks and he himself had failed to notice the laser

Liara's walk turned into a sprint as she closed the distance between her and Damon, blue biotic energy igniting in her hands.

"SHEPARD!" she yelled as she threw up a biotic barrier around him, seconds before the loud discharge of a sniper rifle was heard.

* * *

Shepard was just about to leave when he noticed Liara running towards him. A look of terror was hung over her face and Shepard look around to see what was amiss. Then he saw the targeting laser, aimed squarely over his heart. The discharge of the rifle mixed with the terrified call of his lover, came with a loud bang just as Shepard was engulfed in a biotic barrier.

The shot bounced off the barrier but the kinetic impact was still enough to knock Damon to the ground. He fell on his back and kicked over the table he had been sitting at to give himself some cover. By now, most of the patrons of the club were panicking, running for the nearest exits. He upholstered his rifle, and peeked over the table. Another shot rang out, but this time he wasn't being fired at.

A figure fell from the rafters overlooking the large purple holographic screen in the center of the club.

"I suppose that was you who took him out, Garrus?" Shepard called out over the teams comms.

"Indeed, nailed the bastard as he tried to line up a second shot."

"Great. Thanks for looking out for me, buddy. And thank you for the barrier babe. I always knew both of you cared." called out Damon as peaked over the table again. He wanted to move to better cover but didn't to get hit again if there was more than one of the assailants.

Suddenly flash bang grenades detonated blinding Shepard. He dipped down behind the table and rubbed his eyes, trying to ward away the blurriness of his vision as if they were sweat in his eyes.

" Anybody got eyes on target, I can't get visuals!" Shepard roared through his communicator just as the unseen attackers opened fire on his position. A few shots rung off the over turned table and Damon knew that he needed to move.

"I got 'em Shepard" Garrus called out from above, " It looks like batarians. Probably mercenaries, about seven or eight of them" Garrus lined up a few shots and let them fly, his sniper fire ripping through two batarians and totally ignoring their shields.

Garrus was soon attacked by other batarians when they located his perch on the second level and opened fire. Damon took this time to move. He bounded over the table and opened fire, dropping the three closest batarians that were assaulting his position. As he moved Liara threw a powerful biotic Singularity into the middle of the remaining attackers lifting them from the ground, caught in its unstable gravity well. Each member of the team killed the one of the remaining batarians.

"Good shooting guys, seems like my gut has kept me alive again." Shepard said exhaling deeply. He walked over behind Liara who was going over one of the batarians and typing away at her omni-tool.

"What you got, Liara?" Shepard said peering over her shoulder.

"The insignia on these batarian mercenaries isn't one I recognize. I'm trying see who is after you." Liara replied, concentrating on her work. Shepard went to kneel above one of the dead batarians. It seemed all of them wore a brown suit of armor with an insignia over their chests. The insignia looked like jagged dagger with a snake wrapped around the blade.

"What's the insignia Shepard?" Garrus asked from above, keeping an eye out for more enemies in case they came in force.

"Dagger with a snake wrapped up the blade." Shepard replied

"Really? Damn that doesn't sound good. If I remember correctly isn't that the emblem for batarian special forces?" Garrus responded

"I've never heard of batarian special forces." Shepard replied. "_Must of been asleep during that briefing during N7 training" _he thought to himself.

"They are known as the SIU, Special Intervention Unit. Answerable only to the ruling council of the Batarian Hegemony. All that is known about the SIU is that their training program is brutal. I caught wind of the Blue Suns hiring a group of former SIU operatives to run a hostile environment training camp on the planet Xetic. An independent investigation by Illium authorities into the camp found that the mortality rate was as high as 18%." Liara said as she finished reading the data stream she could find on the unit

"_Fucking great, now I have batarian special forces divisions after me?" _Shepard thought to himself once again as his squad formed up around him.

"So whats our plan Shepard? Doesn't seem like any more are coming but I get the feeling if we walk out the front the SIU are going to have a nasty surprise waiting for us." Garrus said looking towards the clubs main entryway, his mandibles twitching a bit.

"Hmm, I will go out the front alone." Shepard started " And..."

"Love, if you go out the front the batarians will most likely kill you." Liara interjected, interrupting her bond mate and filled with concern.

"That's not going to happen Liara. What I was gonna say was, I need you two to go out the back, and flank them. I can keep them distracted until y'all are in position." Shepard said as he headed for the entryway. Garrus broke off, heading to the back exit, but Liara didn't budge an inch.

"Damon..." she called out, so barely audible that Damon almost missed it. He turned around to see her standing alone, head hung low and her hands were clasped together.

"Whats wrong babe?" Shepard ask, worrying about his girlfriend.

As he got closer Liara flung her arms around his neck and pulled against him tightly. Small sobs came from her mouth and she could barely speak.

"I don't want to lose you again. Seeing you spaced after the Normandy attack was too much. Now I have you back for a little while and the Batarian Hegemony wants your head." Liara said tears streaking down her cheeks.

"Hey, Hey. Easy babe. Nothing is going to happen. It's me we are talking about. I'm not the easiest man in the galaxy to kill." Shepard comforted her, wiping her tears away with his gloved hand. Pulling her close, he pressed his lips against hers in a kiss filled with passion. "I love you, Liara. Now get going babe. I need you to go give 'em hell for me."

Gingerly ending their embrace, Damon planted one last kiss on his lovers forehead and directed her to catch up with Garrus. Watching her attractive form make for the exit he turned towards the main entrance. Damon didn't know what waited for him on the opposite end of the clubs entrance but he would face it knowing that he had fought off far worse


	4. Battle in the Streets

**A/N: Well here comes chapter 4 and I must say I have been having a blast writing this. I hope all the readers have been having fun reading this little story. The action is beginning to heat up for our hero's. Enjoy the story.**

**Ch 4: Battle in the Streets**

Two batarian battle cruisers cleared the Omega Nebula's mass relay and turned towards the Omega Space station. On board the lead cruiser, its CIC was abuzz with activity.

"Captain, Omega Nebula relay transit complete, shall we begin interdiction operations against the Alliance vessel Normandy SR-2?" The ships executive officer reported to his vessels commander. The captain was sitting in his chair enjoying a cigar and sipping what looked like to be an expensive wine.

"Hmm, launch all fighters, we don't want the Alliance scum thinking he or his ship will get away. Tell the _Executor_ to take point and have a few fighter wings run recon on the station. We will guard the relay and monitor the situation from there. I want reports of the situation on the station ten minutes ago, Corporal Andrak" The captain said, finishing another long drag of his cigar

"Yes sir Captain Khali" Andrak responded.

Captain Khali sat back and sipped his wine, savoring both it and the moment. It was only a matter of time before they caught that colony butchering Alliance scum, a human named Shepard. He had fallen into the SIU's trap perfectly.

* * *

Damon had best thought it would be good to snag as much equipment off the dead batarians quickly as he left was leaving the club. All he found was more flash bangs, extra thermal clips and some antipersonnel proximity charges. After adding the dead's gear to his own Shepard was equipped for a small war.

Shepard had learned to always trust his gut and after some quick thinking he was recalibrating his armors kinetic barriers as he left the main floor of the club. He reconfigured the barriers from the standard static bubble coverage to a cyclonic barrier. He had gotten the idea from a similar upgrade to the Normandy's shields he had gotten from one of his closest friends and allies, the female quarian Tali'Zorah.

During his years of military service he had come to realize the importance of tinkering with his equipment. He was no combat engineer by any standards but he had come up with some innovative tools to keep himself alive over the years. He had the idea to minimize the cyclonic barrier tech but couldn't get it calibrated right before the assault on the Collector base.

In the days after the mission in batarian space Shepard had taken to doing a major upgrade to his armor's systems, including adding in his modified barrier design. He had done live fire testing aboard the Normandy in the hanger bay with some help from Legion, a unique geth platform that had allied itself with Damon. Since the geth have more advanced shielding technology than most organic races, Legion was able to give Damon a few ideas, further expanding on his design.

With his shields recalibrated and his equipment in order, he stepped through the door into the entryway for Afterlife. As he made his way to the club entrance he hoped his team had made it to advantageous positions on the outside.

* * *

Liara had managed to catch up to Garrus before he had found the clubs back door. Once they made it to the entrance they found themselves surrounded by more batarian commandos.

"Identify yourselves." The lead batarian questioned the two teammates. Garrus was about to pull his gun on the group but Liara had a better idea. Wrapping her arms around Garrus's neck, she acted the regular bar patron.

"Oh, excuse us gentlemen. My boyfriend and I were having a marvelous evening when all of a sudden there was shooting and explosions. We hid until we were sure it was safe. A heavily armored human was inside." She finished, and that was all the batarian squad needed to hear.

"Move along. The human is a terrorist wanted by the Batarian Hegemony." the leading batarian commando ordered. Garrus and Liara moved away from the squad, with Liara still hanging on Garrus to keep up their cover. As soon as they were out of earshot of the commandos Garrus spoke up.

"We don't have to tell Shepard of our little...liaison do we?" the turian said with a chuckle.

"Don't worry about it Garrus, he will never know" Liara replied, amused by her friends joke.

"Good." was all that Garrus could reply as they made their way through the back alleys surrounding Afterlife. There were many of the club patrons that had escaped the club, all confused as to why the commandos had invaded and ruined most of their night's out. They also saw many more commandos running about making preparations for what surely had to be a trap.

Turing the corner to come leading to the street where Afterlife's main entrance sat, the two aliens could see what all the commotion was about. There a massive unit of the SIU surrounding the club. A gunship flew in over head and took position covering the entrance.

"Holy shit! They mean business. This isn't going to end well." Garrus cursed aloud. Liara was looking upon all of this and she didn't know how her lover was going to make it out of this entanglement. The turian turned and found a ladder; he knew he would need to get to higher ground to cover Shepard the best he could.

Liara didn't budge though, paralyzed with fear and concern for her bond mate who was walking into a trap the Illusive Man couldn't have planned any better. "By the Goddess." She whispered quietly

"Liara, you are not going to be able to help Damon by standing there. We have to move and try to take some heat off the commander. C'mon we fought off twice as many geth before." Garrus urged Liara, snapping her from her daze.

"Ok, ok. What are we gonna do?" Liara replied, steeling her nerves and arming her custom M-12 Locust submachine gun given to her from Damon's personal armory.

* * *

Damon had made his way to the end of the entrance corridor to Afterlife when he heard his communicator buzz to life.

"_Garrus and Liara must be in position outside." _Shepard thought to himself before opening up the teams comm channel. "You guys in position? Whats the situation outside?"

"Not looking too favorable Shepard. The SIU are out in force, at least at platoon strength and they have gunship support." Garrus responded, worry peppering his speech. Damon's brow furrowed when he heard the report.

"_A platoon just to apprehend lil ol' me? Now I am flattered." _Damon thought to himself amused. He wondered if there was ever going to be a time in his life where he wasn't being hunted down like some kind of rabid animal. But always in the back of his mind he couldn't see himself being anything else than a soldier. "Ok guys, any ideas?" Shepard asked his team.

"Garrus went to find higher ground and I am trying to find the best spot to flank them. When I get a clear shot, I'm letting the biotics fly, Shepard." Liara spoke, bringing a smile to Damon. In the two years he had been gone, Liara had developed into a more capable warrior. Not that he didn't love her magnificent mind or anything, but her new combat prowess seriously turned Damon on.

"Roger that. I will be stepping out of the club momentarily. Lets let them make the first move. I want to see how they operate." Shepard commanded. He got two affirmatives from his squad and proceeded to the door of the club. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and was meet with spotlights raping his eyes.

"FREEZE! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM, HUMAN TRASH!" called out the SIU squad leader as a small group batarians surrounded Shepard. He was blinded at first from the spotlights but his eyes quickly adjusted. There were three commandos, one in front and to his right and left. Three others were advancing up the stairs, their rifles aimed cautiously at Shepard. The rest of the batarian fire team was crowded in the walkway in front of the club.

"All right guys, easy with the weapons" Damon said with an confident swagger as he slowly raised his hands above his head taking a few steps forward. As he stepped the batarians closest to him moved to surround him and one quickly took out some handcuffs. The commander smirked as he noticed to the side Liara had come up unnoticed. Garrus wasn't visible yet but the turian always had impeccable timing.

Once the batarian with handcuffs got behind Shepard and yanked his hand down; he felt his adrenaline rush. As the chemicals rushed through his bloodstream the intial high slowed down time and Damon used that moment to strike.

He snapped his elbow up quickly, hitting the batarian trying to cuff him in the nose. As the commando fell, he wasted no time throwing a hay maker to the face of the soldier in front of him, knocking him flat. By that time the last batarian within reach had brought his rifle to bear on Shepard.

He opened fire but Shepard's shields slapped the shots away allowing the human the second he needed to slap down the gun of the SIU trooper. The trooper dropped his gun and Shepard spun around him, placing him in between him and the batarians coming up the stairs. He wrapped his armored arm around the commandos throat, giving him a quick hostage.

The three advancing commandos had already opened fire on Shepard and the shots struck their comrade. As the first projectile hit his hostage Shepard drew his pistol from its mount on his hip and gunned down the advancing SIU troops with cold, practiced precision.

As the last soldier dropped and started to tumble down the stairs, Liara took this moment to strike. She charged up her biotics to their maximum and sent a powerful shock wave of blue energy through the middle of the batarian platoon, scattering them. Some flew through the air hitting the buildings with force, others flew off the sides of the terrace and fell into Omegas dark depths.

The shock of being attacked on two fronts surprised the special forces squad long enough for Damon to prime a flash bang grenade. He threw the grenade and switched from his pistol to his shotgun simultaneously.

When the flash bang detonated blinding the remaining forces, Garrus opened fire from the roof of a building to Shepard's right, suppressing any batarians trying to get a shot in on Shepard. By now the gunship overhead had a clear shot and opened fire on Liara, who had managed to duck under some pipes that stuck out on the street in front of the club.

"Some help would be appreciated guys!" Liara called out, pinned down.

"On it, babe." Shepard called out to her. "Garrus, anyway you could overload that gunships shields? I got an idea"

"Oh another great idea from Commander Shepard?" Garrus laughed over the comms as he activated his omni-tool. He found the correct frequency and sent an electrical charge through the gunship, having the desired effect of shorting out its shields.

"All right, Liara hit it with a singularity and I will handle the rest." Shepard called out as he pumped two shotgun blasts into two batarians progressing towards him. Liara did as commanded, and the singularity had trapped the gunship in its gravity well.

Shepard knew that the gunship wouldn't be held for long so he unbuckled a grenade from his ammo belt. As he primed it, the grenade glowed blue with biotic power. Shepard lobbed the grenade up towards the gunship. As it traveled upward towards the gunship, the grenade broke off into many smaller units. Upon striking the gunships hull the broken up grenades exploded with considerable biotic force causing a chain reaction in Liara's singularity. The singularity's dark energy field collapsed and exploded causing the gunship to crash onto the street.

By now most of the SIU had retreated to safer positions and opened fire on Shepard who was still out in the open. His shields deflected the rounds as Shepard took a running dive towards the pipes to his left that Liara as under. He hit the ground and rolled to the pipes. Garrus continued to fire on the batarians; dropping a few more and drawing their fire off of Shepard and Liara.

"Hey babe, hows it hanging?" Shepard said wittily with a toothy grin to his lover while blind firing his shotgun over the pipes. Liara looked at him with bewildered eyes. She never understood how he could be so calm under fire.

"Why does it always seem like whenever we are getting shot at you are having the time of your life?" She managed to say as she sprayed some gunfire to pacify more troops.

"Don't know, not good at much else besides fighting" Shepard replied, peeking out from cover to see how many enemies remained. He quickly counted and there were at least twenty left. A few thermal rounds flew past his head, impacting his shields.

"Shields at thirty percent power." his armor's on board systems relayed through his communicator. Shepard had rigged the system to give him a readout when kinetic barriers were falling low on power, since he tended to forget to check during a firefight.

"Shepard, I got sights on incoming dropships. They look like..." Garrus called out from his sniper perch trying to get a good view. "More SIU grunts! And here I thought Omega's mercs had decided to join the party."

"Confirmed" Shepard responded to Garrus and turned to Liara. "On my mark, I need you to run for the corridor behind us. I will cover you and be right on your heels." Shepard ordered. He could hear the engines of the enemy's shuttles as they approached.

"Shepard..." Liara groaned, looking towards the door he mentioned. It had to be at least eighty meters from their current position and there was no cover to protect them from gunfire along the way.

"Just go Liara" a stern voiced Shepard, the sudden intensity of his voice urging Liara to follow his lead. "Three"

Liara moved to a crouched position

"Two" Shepard unbuckled another biotic cluster grenade from his utility belt and loaded a full thermal clip into his shotgun

"One" Liara readied herself to run.

"GOOO!" the human roared as he raised from cover, drawing the batarians attention. Liara immediately broke off into a sprint towards the rear corridor.

Shepard launched his cluster grenade towards to batarians and pumped shotgun shells simultaneously as she retreated. The batarians were already wary of the cluster grenade after the gunship's destruction, so they tried to scatter for cover to little avail. As his explosives detonated, Shepard also made a run for the causeway at the end of the street.

As the explosions cleared the batarian shuttles were landing spilling troops out. Troops with hand held rocket launchers piled out first and opened fire on the retreating couple. A rocket streaked through the air past Shepard and struck the ground near Liara. The explosion caused Liara to stumble and her shields to collapse.

She was able to stay on her feet as she made it to the door. She struggled to open it as another explosion went off near her. Fumbling with her omni-tool, due to the shell shock from the rocket explosion making her hands unsteady, she silently cursed as the doors finally slid open and she ducked into the walkway.

Shepard was only a few meters away from the doors as Liara opened them. He glanced back over his shoulder as he heard another rocket being fired. It was on a straight trajectory for him, quickly approaching. He threw his body into a slide along the ground.

It wasn't enough as the rocket struck the ground, exploding near him. The blast was too much for his already weakened shields, and her was engulfed in fire for a moment. The metal of his armor burned and absorbed some of the heat. The rest singed his body. The commander rolled a few feet from the blast and lay a few meters from the door, unmoving.

"Shepard!" Liara called out, running from her cover to drag him to the corridor. As his booted feet cleared the door she shut the door and smashed the control console, hoping that would buy them some time from their ambushers. She shook Shepard, trying unsuccessfully to rouse him from unconsciousness.

Garrus appeared in the causeway a few moments later, cautiously eying his unconscious friend.

"Doesn't look too bad. Slap him around a bit." he said as he began to weld the door shut with his omni-tool. Liara resumed her efforts to wake up Shepard. She ran her fingers over the slightly warm black armor and came across a few punctures in his armor. Sticking nimble blue fingers into a few of the punctures she was startled when she felt warm blood, oozing from the holes.

Shepard groaned as he felt pain racing through his chest, violently waking him. Startled, Liara pulled her fingers out of the human's wound. His eyes flickered open to Liara still brushing her hands along his armor. She smiled as she saw the earthen hue of his eyes.

"Glad you are ok." she said standing up, allowing Shepard to roll over onto his stomach. He as he rose up to his knees, he felt pain running through his side. Another groan escaped from his mouth as he shakily rose to his feet.

"Arrrgh" he groaned, "I'm still in one piece, even if I feel like I got run over by stampeding krogan" His sarcasm gave his team a slight chuckle; his wit never lost on his friends.

"We need to leave Omega, Shepard. These batarian Spec Ops are out in force." Garrus noted, finishing his work sealing the door, nodding in acceptance of his welding skills.

"I agree, Damon. We need to go. These troops mean business. The Batarian Hegemony wants your head."

Shepard stood there, lost in thought. "_Hackett said the batarians would be out for blood. I didn't think it would come to direct military action though. We better get back to the Normandy and get out of here while there's still a chance._

"Lets fall back to the Normandy." Damon finally said, bringing relieved sighs from his squad. They knew that the commander wasn't the kind of soldier that would willingly back away from a fight; he wasn't the kind of man you ambush expecting him to lay down and take it. There was a reason he had become one of the most decorated marines in the Alliance

Suddenly his communicator sprang to life

"Commander we have a batarian cruiser on our scopes and it has launched fighters. You better hurry back so we can get the hell outta her" Jokers voice rang.

At that very moment an explosion rocked the recently welded door. The door held steady but the metal had warped inward.

"I think thats our cue to leave this corridor." Garrus said moving to leave.

"Aww whats wrong buddy? Scared of a lil ol' rocket." Shepard teased, as both Liara and him followed the turians lead.

"No, would just rather not have to other half of my face blown off. Plus I don't want to gain any bigger an advantage over the ladies than you Shepard."

"What ladies? There something you want to tell me Damon?" Liara injected, pretending to be jealous

"Umm, no comment." Shepard said mockingly, heading out of the corridor. Looking around to make sure they weren't being watched, they hastily made their way to the markets. The markets themselves were still abuzz with activity it seemed that the commotion at Afterlife had yet to reach the markets.

They were moving towards the docking port of the Normandy. Turning the corner, Shepards team heard fighters zooming overhead. The team got into cover to stay out of sight. The fighters opened fire on the Normandy, unloading disruptor missiles and accelerator rounds onto the vessel. The ship strained on its docking arm, but the kinetic barriers were able to disperse the weapons fire.

"Joker, Normandy status!" Shepard called out over his radio to his helmsman.

"Barriers are holding sir, but I got to move the ship. That cruiser is bearing down on the station and those fighters are coming around for another pass."

Shepard thought momentarily. On one hand, he knew that he could escape on his ship due to its advanced stealth systems. On the other hand, he felt that he needed to make a stand. These batarians would keep hounding him til he was captured and lynched in a mob on the batarian home world.

"Garrus, Liara. Board the Normandy and tell Joker to leave the system. The SIU will probably tail you guys. Lead them on a merry chase around and once you lose them, come back for me. I know that they will probably leave some type of garrison here on Omega. They are mine."

"Ok, Shepards lost it. Lets get him aboard" Garrus said, eying his friend with disbelief at the orders he commanded.

"I'm not leaving either, Damon. You are not going to face a full batarian special forces unit by yourself." Liara said, eyes full of fiery defiance and passion for her love.

"Guys, I can't have you both with me. This ruse has to work and as far as we know, they still think I am a one man butchering machine."

"Doesn't matter, I am not going Shepard." Liara stated again. Shepard looked at Garrus, looking for help. Letting out a sigh he finally speaking.

"Ok, since you two love birds can't be torn from each other, I will tell Joker the plan." Garrus relented and Shepard breathed a sigh of relief. He knew his turian ally would be the one to see his point. "Stay safe you two. I don't want to come back to this rock and find you dead."

"Don't worry, I will make sure Shepard lives to scheme another day" Liara said, standing next to Shepard and gave him an elbow in the ribs. He took a sharp breath and just rolled his eyes.

Garrus stepped onto the docking arm thhat connected to the Normandy and its doors slid shut. As Shepard and Liara was turning to leave, his omni-tool beeped which signaled that he was being hailed on a separate radio frequency. Switching frequencies over Shepard heard a familiar taunt.

"I know what you are doing commander. I will let you have this little gun date with T'Soni, but you owe me."

Smiling as they watched the Normandy separate from its dock, he wondered how he never could get anything past that smug turian.


	5. A Quiet Place To Hole Up

**A/N: Whats going on all my readers? I am so sorry for the long hiatus in my writings. I became so engrossed with school and football after last summer that I had to just take a break from writing. But good news! I am back and hopefully I want to be able to pump out a chapter every few weeks like before. Please read and review and I THANK YOU ALL FOR YOU PATIENCE**

**Ch. 5: A Quiet Place To Hole Up**

**Batarian Battle Cruiser **_**Devastator**_

Corporal Andrak of the batarian Special Intervention Unit cruiser _Devastator_ strode through the ship's crew deck to the captains quarters. He was due to report captain Khali the status of the efforts to apprehend the Alliance marine, Shepard, on Omega. To say the least it wasn't going well, the human was living up to his reputation of being a skilled soldier.

Failure wasn't an option for the SIU and usually met with brutal consequences. Andrak just hoped his captain wouldn't bother to kill the bearer of bad news. He nervously stood before the door before knocking.

There was the sound of rustling beyond the door before the captain spoke.

"Yes, who is it?"

"Andrak sir, I have a status report of the ground situation on Omega. Permission to enter?

"Granted." Khali said as he opened the door for his XO. Andrak stepped into the Captains quarters; the room was dimly lit. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light. Captain Khali sat in a chair looking out into the vast expanse of space and Andrak cleared his throat before speaking.

"Sir, Shepard has eluded our squads on the station. It seems that he took a team and they helped him escape our planned ambush at the club, Afterlife. They seemed to have made it back to his ship, the Normandy. The vessel escaped our blockade but the _Executor _is in pursuit."

Khali spun around in his chair, a look of calm fury shone in all four of the batarian's eyes. He held his pistol, a standard issue Predator, in his hand. Andrak swallowed rather loudly as his captain pointed his weapon towards him with murderous intent.

"Where are they now?" was all that Khali could manage to say.

Swallowing loudly again Andrak responded stammering a bit, "Well sir... th the Normandy made a break to leave the system, but we still have scattered sightings of Shepard on Omega. The _Executor _is in pursuit. We think that the Normandy's escape might be part of an elaborate ruse to draw us away from the station."

Khali continued to glare at his XO as he paced slowly back and forth in front of his window looking out into the darkness. He could feel his anger simmering. He had sent a few of his best squads to capture Shepard. For a human, he had proven himself pretty resourceful. Even more so, Khali hadn't expected the human to bring a squad to the meeting. Recent intel had suggested that he was taking on a rather large amount of solo missions.

"Double patrols on Omega. Capture of Shepard is of utmost priority, any of his team is a bonus. And raise the _Executor _and tell them I want that fucking ship!" he hollered.

Taking a few deep breaths to cool as he finished, "You know the penalty for failure" Khali said as he pointed his pistol at Andrak. Andrak shivered since he knew what was coming; serving under Khali for as long as he had been it was expected.

Two gunshots were fired by Khali: one into his left leg, and the other into his right shoulder. Andrak was brought to his knees wincing in pain but quickly rose to his feet.

"Understood Captain" Andrak said with a salute, doing his best to hide the pain he was feeling and exited the Captains quarters quickly. Khali turned back to his window, resuming his gaze out into space.

"Shepard..." faintly escaped his lips. He turned around and walked over to a desk in the corner of his room. Reaching out towards the desk as he approached, he slipped a fingers across a picture frame. His resolve steeled by anger, he strode out of his quarters determined to finish what Shepard had started.

* * *

Shepard slowly crept up behind a batarian sentry that was guarding the entrance to the residential blocks on Omega. He and Liara had been ducking batarian death squads for what seemed like hours and they were both becoming increasingly more exhausted. A break in the action was in order and Omega had more than enough accommodations for the two besieged lovers.

As Shepard continued toward his target, his booted foot clanked against some junk that clanked away to the side. The sound was enough to alert the guard to the commander's presence; he spun around with his rifle aimed to kill the exposed human. Damon quickly broke into a sprint, colliding with the sentry and violently tackling him to the ground.

Shepard quickly moved to squat on him; brought his arm up while turning on his omni-tool. Instantly the tool reformatted itself into a searing hot blade and Damon plunged it directly into the batarian's chest. The attack instantly killed him.

Little did Shepard know, down the passage way the sentry's partner was returning from his patrol. As he turned the corner he spotted Shepard as he was getting up. He settled in, leaning back to line up his shot. He lined up Shepard in his sights with his finger hovered over the trigger biding his time; waiting for the perfect shot.

Suddenly the batarian was blown back by biotic power into the wall behind him. Damon looked back over his shoulder to see Liara with her hand outstretched, biotics ablaze.

"You know, just because you have modified your omni-tool's capabilities, doesn't mean you should risk yourself in bold stunts, Damon." Liara half scolded, half teased as she walked past him. Damon made a mental note of the seductive sway of her hips she went past. Liara came to a halt next to the unconscious patrolman, looked at him for a quick second before unholstering her pistol and putting a few rounds into the batarian to finish him off.

"Did you really need to kill him? We could have gotten some information out of him." Damon said walking up behind his bond-mate to see her handy work.

"We could have gotten information from the one you killed too, so I guess that makes us even." Liara smirked as she rifled the guards pockets looking for anything useful. Finding some thermal clips, she tossed a few over to Damon. He nodded in approval and they both continued on their way through to the residential blocks.

Proceeding through the entry way through the entrance they saw that there was a group of Blue Suns mercenaries attacking a SIU regiment that was patrolling the entrance. The Blue Suns had superior position on the SIU and weren't really noticing the couple as they entered.

Liara and Damon quickly made their way to a side passage since they both knew that any extra attention would help their cause too much. Moving down the passage they could see that there was more residential blocks down the way.

When they came to the end of the passage way they see that they had come to a courtyard in front of the next residential complex. Relaxing a bit since they, for now, could not see any patrolling Batarians.

"Wow, no one to greet us? How disappointing" Damon said looking rather hurt. Liara just rolled her eyes. She would have to admit that no matter how much his love for her burned, his passion for his call of duty burned almost as hard; maybe even more so.

"What, you don't like spending time with me? And here I thought you sending Garrus back aboard the Normandy was all an attempt to get me alone in a highly volatile situation."

Shepard was at a lost for words as Liara finished her sentence. Had she heard Garrus' parting words? He was sure that he had switched to their private comm channel. But he wouldn't put it past her to have hacked into his comm lines. She was a brilliant doctor and now she had the title of Shadow Broker.

"Whats wrong lover? Was it something I said?" Liara commented, breaking his line of thought.

"Nothing, but I have liked the time we have had together. Even if we have been chased by death squads intent on killing me." Damon said, drawing close to Liara. She was receptive of his move as she slid her arm up and down his black armor.

"Why don't we go inside and see what kind of rooms can be found?" the human suggested, nodding his head towards the apartments.

"Good idea, lets move." said the beautiful Asari doctor. As they both turned around to head towards the door of the complex, to their surprise, the doors were forcefully flung open by a group of batarians. As they walked through the doors they saw their quarry.

"It's the human!", said the leader of the group as they all raised their weapons. " Capture him!"

Thinking quickly, knowing that he had another upgrade that would be useful now, he placed himself between Liara and the enemy troops. Activating his omni-tool, he placed it in front the both of them. As the device turned on, it restructured itself to form a large energy shield.

This caught the batarians off guard so they opened fire. The shield soaked up the batarians gunfire fortunately.

_'Thank you yahg Shadow Broker!' _he thought. This little nifty invention he picked up from the battle with the old Shadow Broker.

"Haha! Didn't see that one coming, did you? You ugly bastards!" Shepard boasted loudly as Liara and him backed away from the door. Liara charged her biotics and threw several powerful energy blasts at their assailants, blowing a few of them away. In the meanwhile, Shepard had grabbed his pistol from his side and begun shooting; bringing down another few batarians.

His omni-shield was running low on energy as more batarians focused their gunfire on him, so he dove to his side for cover. Liara occupied the remaining troops as she caught them in a singularity. Deciding to show off a bit, Liara threw another warp blast into the trapped batarians. The warp field collided with one of them, causing the singularity to become unstable and explode. Smiling to herself as she observed her handy work, Liara turned around to see Damon still on the ground.

Damon lay where he had dived for cover, but he was slow to get up. A few bullets had managed to break through his armor's shielding, piercing him and adding to the number of bullet wounds he had received that day.

" I really need to stop getting shot." He murmured to himself as he managed to get himself up in a knee. Reaching into a pouch on his utility belt, he took out a packet of medi-gel.

:Need some help with that?" came the sultry purr of Liara's voice. She had walked over to where he was kneeling and had brought out a packet of her own medi-gel.

"Sure, doctor. Some help would be appreciated." Damon said, rolling over his back, wincing slightly. He was starting to regret being too bold for his own good. Liara knelt down over him with the packet hand. She squeezed the cool blue gel through the cracks in his armor; the salve doing its job of mending Shepard's wounds.

Shepard closed his eyes as he felt the gel tingling as it cooled and healed his wounds. Liara was still kneeling over him and she saw that he was beginning to grin as he lay there. Slightly amused at his smile, she leaned in closer to his face.

Getting ready to open his eyes, Shepard licked his lips slightly and that was all the signal Liara needed. She leaned fully into her lovers face and passionately kissed him on his lips. Shepard was caught off guard, irregular for him, yet settled into the kiss all the same. He wrapped an arm around her neck in an effort to draw her closer to him.

Eagerly, she reciprocated his need for closeness and slid her body fully down onto Shepard as both their tongues started to explore each other's mouths. Showing no discretion for their surroundings, the two released their built up passion for each other in an explosion of desire. Losing himself in the moment, and with more than a hint of lust for his asari woman, Damon made his move to start the arduous task of unbuckling her tunic.

His fingers, which were surprisingly nimble for their size, maneuvered onto the buckles. As he slowly unclasped them; their slow rhythmic clicking beating out an erotic ambient beat, Liara grabbed his hands mid-kiss.

"Not now, darling." She purred softly in between kisses; lightly flicking her lips against his. Damon voiced his reluctant admission of her self control with a low grunt of his own; making no motion to slow his persistent assault with his lips.

_'She wants me so bad right now. Dammit, and there's no doubt she knows I want her...'_ spun through the aroused Commander's mind as he used the low wall they had be sprawled out next to as leverage to pull the duo up. He slowly dropped his arm from around her waist to grab some of her luscious booty while he scanned their surroundings to get re associated with his surroundings.

The courtyard was still rather empty. A few of the residents from the complex of apartments had come out to see what all the commotion had been about, but none of them had seemed to noticed the two entangled lovers that happened to be cuddling in the corner.

"Good thing nobody saw our little display." Liara chimed in as she was fastening up her armor behind her lover. "That might have been embarassing."

"Whatever, I bet you would love it if we were watched" chuckled Damon as he walked up beside her to take her hand. Liara could only let out an abashed chuckle as her cheeks blushed. Damon led them inside the complex; it was a decent place, way better than the squalor housing that Omega would usually provided to it its residents.

Damon and Liara roamed around for a bit, just enjoying each others company. They never got time to spend together; Shepard was consumed with his mission of finding a way to stop the Reaper threat which left very little time for social calls. Liara was also tied up with her Shadow Broker duties, while also assisting Damon as much as possible.

"Can I tell you something babe?" Damon said as he intertwined his fingers in hers, drawing the asari closer to him as they continued their stroll along random hallways

"Yes my love?" Liara answered as she rested her head on her man's shoulder, waiting for him to continue.

"Since Mindior,with all the horrible shit that went down when those batarian bastards, I haven't been able to find any real peace in this galaxy for myself until now. I was only sixteen when they attacked, I had my whole life ahead of me. My father and mother were well respected in the colony; father running the spaceport and mother being the resident physician."

Damon went onto to cater Liara to the tale of his life on Mindoir; how he had been an exceptional student and was chosen by the Alliance to attend naval academy at Jump Zero, the Alliance's largest deep space station, on scholarship. Damon had been a popular kid in the colony, always surrounded by friends and had more than a few girls pinning after him.

That all changed with the slaver massacre.

"They attacked using the cover of night. It had to be at least around midnight. They wiped out the Aliiance garrison in no time with their superior firepower and greater numbers. Then they proceeded to abduct or outright slaughter us colonists. Women and children were enslaved, most men were put down immediately because they refused to be slaves."

As Liara listened to his story, a question was raised in her mind. She didn't want to ask Shepard, since she knew it was a sensitive matter, but her curiosity that stemmed from her scientist background got the best of her.

"Shepard, you never said what happened to your parents."

Damon stiffened up since he could feel the question coming. He seemed choked up, one of the few times she had ever seen him like that.

"My parents..." Shepard started.

"If you don't want to relive that pain Damon, I understand."

"No, its okay Liara. I am fine telling you, it's just hard you know?"

Liara only nodded in agreement, struggling to hold back her own tears as her partner continued

"My parents defied the batarians. They had first gotten me to safety outside to colony along with all the other kids they could find. Then they went back to try and help as necessary. But they were caught just the same." Damon stated. "My father was defiant and stubborn, guess that's where I get it from. He wouldn't submit, so the slavers took mother..."

He had to stop because Damon had started to sob lightly. Tears, which didn't fall easily for the soldier, had begun to streak down his browned cheeks. He had to collect himself before he could start again.

"They took my mother and ravaged her, again and again. Restraining my father the whole time. Then when they were done with her, they beat him to death and burned her alive." Damon said as his sorrow was slowly churning into anger. Liara could sense the flash in his emotions and immediately wrapped the human in a comforting embrace to ease his pain.

Shepard returned her embrace as he continued on.

"I had to take care of the kids so we hid out in the country side for a while. When the Alliance patrol came that eventually drove away the invaders, we returned home to a nightmare. All of our families were gone, dead or worse."

Liara let Damon finish of his narrative, telling her how an Alliance captain had saw his hunger to get revenge against the slavers and conscripted Damon to his unit as they chased the batarians to the edge of the system. This was where Damon first showed his talent for combat, single handedly taking down a small detachment of slavers by himself as the human marines boarded the ship. That had prompted an early entrance into the Alliance military, as per the captain's enthusiastic recommendation.

"I never knew Damon. I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"I know you caught glimpses when we melded."

Indeed, Liara had caught glimpses of what had happened when both their minds were melded together but she never had the full story. Memory exchange was possible between asari and their partners during a bonding, but asari also respected their bond-mates privacy. Memories that weren't wished to be shared were kept private until they were ready to be discussed. Liara had never wanted to intrude on her lovers mind

"I did." Liara admitted, "I always wanted to ask what happened but I didn't want to pry. I knew you would tell me when you were ready. I'm glad you did." She said giving the man's hand a hearty squeeze.

"Yea, thank you for that." Damon said as he affectionately stroked her crest and kissed her lovingly upon her forehead.

"One thing though, Damon?" Liara questioned

"Mmmhmm?" was all Damon could respond with as they had come to an apartment whose registry happened to be empty. Seeing as how they were looking for a place off the grid, this probably was the best place to bunker down for a while to rest and plan their next move

"You said that haven't been able to find any real peace until now. What gave you peace?" She inquired curiously

"That's simple babe. You did" Damon said as he finished his hack on the doors lock and the door slid open"

Liara was smitten by his statement. She, just a lowly Prothean researcher had given one of the galaxy's most decorated officers peace.

As she went inside to scout out the place, he accessed that floors registry. It seemed that the whole floor was vacant so there would be little chance of any interruptions on the two but that never meant that any SIU patrols couldn't stumble upon them during a random search; especially since that last patrol wouldn't be reporting in

"_Damn, there's gotta be something I could use to deter any intruders" _ Damon thought to himself, stroking his chin whiskers. Then the light bulb turned on. He remembered he still had anti-personnel proximity charges that he picked off some enemies in Afterlife. He unpacked a few from his belt; looking them over he guessed they had about a fifteen foot kill radius. Perfect for setting up a nasty surprise.

He set them to go off a few seconds after the invisible trip laser had been activated and he placed them all along the corridor leading to their lodgings. He made sure he left enough space between the last charge and their room; didn't want to blow the both of them to shit in their sleep.

Looking over his work, satisfied that it would do the trick, he spun on his heel and headed back to the newly acquired lodgings. As he got closer to the apartment he could hear Liara chatting on her communicator.

"Thank you, for the assistance Glyph."

'_Damn she stays busy' _Shepard thought amused as he walked into the apartment and closed the door. As it locked Liara had finished her business and was turning off her omni-tool. As she turned around the human noted her concerned look.

"Shadow Broker problems?"

"Oh nothing like that Shepard. There's just something strange going on."

Shepard stood with a puzzled look upon his face, waiting for, more explanation. Liara cleared her throat and continued.

"Well, you know how I looked over my network for data on on those Omega Defenders that you were supposed to meet up with?"

Damon nodded in agreement, soaking it in. His instinct had been correct all along.

"My network is extensive and the Shadow Brokers data is hardly ever incorrect. So that means the Batarian Hegemony must have been putting real effort into their hunt for you if they were able to deceive my sources.

Damon sat back and sighed. He had been wary of a batarian response to his actions of the previous weeks. They certainly had balls though. Direct military action against a Spectre agent, which was the special operations arm of the Citadel Council, could prompt a response from the Citadel. Also Shepard was still affiliated with the Systems Alliance.

"Shepard, what are you thinking?" Liara queried, curious as to the internal thought machinations of her love.

"Oh, nothing just thinking." He said as he stood up. "Well since we have some down time, I think its time to get out of this armor.

He began unfastening his chest cuirass; it wasn't easy since a few of the disengaging locks had been fused to suit in the previous firefights. He cursed under his breath as he activated his omni-tool's blow torch to cut the clamps.

As he fiddled with his armor, Liara giggled at him, amused at his current predicament. She casually walked over to the window to have a look outside. If she hadn't known better, she would have thought it was a normal day on the Omega station. There was a general hustle and bustle to the area on ground level not unlike that of the Citadel. If the Citadel had been inhabited by cutthroats and mercenaries instead of diplomats and citizens at least.

Hearing a thud, she turned around to see that Shepard had finally gotten out of his chest armor. He stood there in his bloodied undershirt, all stained and ridden with holes from gunshots that had pierced him in the earlier firefights.

Damon found an empty table and set his discarded cuirass on it. Then he made way to take off his leggings, gauntlets and combat boots. These were significantly more easy to disrobe from as opposed to the chestplate.

"Ahh!", the commander sighed as he removed the last vestiges of armor, freeing his body from its tight confines. He flexed his muscles to stretch them and Liara gave a low whistle as her lover did so.

"Stop it" Damon teased noting his under armor attire. He wore a type of suit mesh, basically a full body suit, designed to keep his body comfortable in his armor. The mesh was rather tight fitting and accented the commander's athletic physique.

"Oh, see something you like?" Shepard asked slyly as he moved to unzip his mesh, doing his best to make it slow and sensual for his lady. Liara let out another low whistle and her body shivered with arousal as her man undressed.

Soon Damon stood only in his boxers. Gathering the rest of his armor components, he set them upon the desk with his chest-piece. Taking his omni-tools wrist mount off of his left gauntlet he slipped it onto his wrist and activated it. The tools familiar orange holographic interface sprang to life and he quickly went to work. He set up his tool's armor repair utility. He was glad that he had gotten this upgrade a few weeks back, since usually this had to be done by hand. He gathered some displaced scrapes of plastics, metals and other junk material around the vicinity of the impromptu workbench he set up. Setting the tool on auto execute, Shepard took off the mount and placed it on the table to do its work of using the materials to repair his armor.

Just as he was straightning up to turn around, well-known arms wrapped themselves around his waist. Liara had come up behind him and wrapped him in an embrace.

"Mmmm something I can do for you love?" Damon asked, relaxed by his lady's touch.

"Well for starters, you could go wash the dried blood off yourself" Liara answered flirtatiously as she tenderly made a trail of affectionate kisses up his spine. Damon moaned slightly as he felt her velvety soft lips brush against his skin with every kiss

"Your wish is my command, my mistress" he complied jestingly, making note that her remark seemed more of a command then a suggestion.

"Oh, stop it." Liara giggled as she gave him a playful push towards the washroom. He threw up his hands in relinquishment as he made his way there. When he got there he was pleasantly surprised that the washroom, the shower especially, was rather roomy. Finding the controls for the shower he turned it on.

There was a slight gurgle and for a moment Shepard had the disappointing thought that maybe the apartments water had been shut off. Then the shower sprang to life with water jetting out of the spout. Pleased Shepard put his hand under the torrent to test its temperature. The water was slightly chilled so he turned the heat up to a comfortable level. Smiling to himself as the water came to a cozy warmth he stripped off his last vestige of clothing and stepped under the pleasing warming waterspout.

He just stood there under the running water, relaxing under the cascade of heated liquid. He leaned against the wall of the shower, using one arm to balance himself. By this time steam had begun to gather up in the washroom. As he looked down he could see water stained with his blood pooling down the drain.

Just then he heard footsteps behind him. He smiled to himself with closed eyes as there was only one person that it could possibly be.

"Glad you decided to join me" He said keeping his attention on the wall in front of him as Liara joined him in the shower.

"Ahh, this feels wonderful Damon. It feels like I haven't showered in ages." Liara said as she hugged him from behind. Her lithe fingers traced over the spots of his recent wounds causing him to wince a bit as they still stung."Hurt still?"

"Only a little bit. The medi-gel does wonders though, Doctor." Shepard chuckled as she continued her explorations of his body with her hands. She traced her fingers along other bullet wounds from previous battles, a few long scars from daggers that had also cut him, and a few leftover burn scars from careless welding. More then a few of these weren't there the last time she had seen him naked.

"My, my, you sure are injury prone aren't you? So many scars. Do you like being hurt or something?" Liara asked puzzled. Damon just shook his head.

"I live dangerously. I'm a marine." Was the only answer he could think of at the moment. He knew that she worried about him and he admired her concern, but at times she was overprotective.

Liara turned him around so she could look into his brown eyes. Those defiant eyes, eyes that spoke volumes to her. She could see he noted her concern but at the same time was disconcerted by it.

"I'm sorry Shepard. I don't mean to nag." She started as she nuzzled into his chest. "I just worry about you. Can you blame me? I've already lost you once.'

"Its ok, I get it." He said wrapping his arms around the asari's waist. "I will always come back to you. I promise" He reached down to her chin to tilt her head so he could look at her.

His eyes met hers, brown to blue. Those sapphire peepers spoke volumes as they always had. Passion overtook the him and he kissed her lovingly. She pushed her luscious bosom against his chest as she was spurred on by his explosive emotionality.

He was an enthusiastic lover and soon brought up a hand to caress one of her breasts, kneading it in gentle sensual motions. Low moans escaped her throat in between kisses to be swallowed up by the man before they could escape.

He separated their mouths and moved his onto her neck, kissing and nibbling lightly away at her flesh. Numerous moans came from Liara, louder this time urging Shepard onward. He slowly trailed his way down her neck, coming to her chest. He continued to rub one breast as he kissed on the other.

"Oh Goddess yes!" Liara throatily groaned, feeling heat emanating from her core as Damon slurped a cerulean nipple in his mouth. Damon alternated rolling his tongue, lightly biting and sucking on her nipple giving her outstanding pleasure.

"Mmmm so tasty." Damon lowly rumbled as his lips detached from her bountiful tits. Liara rustled her fingers through his short hair as his mouth was occupied in giving her breasts pleasurable attention.

Soon he finished his mouth's games and came back up for another passionate kiss. Liara could feel his arousal as his manhood was erect and rubbing against her pussy, causing her own arousal to skyrocket.

Soon she couldn't handle it any longer and she had to taste him. Pushing Damon against the wall of the shower she slid down his body until she was kneeling in front of him.

"Mmmm damn your are so hard already. " She purred as her hand grasped his erect cock, giving it a few slow, teasing pumps. Dabbles of pre-cum leaked from the swollen head of his penis A low moan escaped Shepard's throat, indicating his delight.

She continued to pump him a few more times, teasingly, knowing that was driving him mad due to his squirming. Before long her lust got the best of her and she took his large organ into her mouth. Shepard threw his head back as he felt the warm, wet insides of her mouth.

The asari swirled her tongue around the tip of his cock before deep throating his cock, taking him all the way to the hilt.

"God dammit!" Shepard bellowed loudly as she began to rigorously suck him off. She slide his dick all the way out of her mouth before slamming it back down her throat. One hand moved rhythmically with her mouth movements, while the other caressed his balls giving him a double whammy of pleasant feelings

Liara had developed no gag-reflex, so taking in his huge cock in her mouth was no problem. Her tongue swirled and twisted around him as she slid his dick in and out of her mouth while her head bobbled on his cock.

"Ahh...Li...Liara...I.I..I..can't..." the human stammered, having trouble making coherent statements as his dick started to swell, his balls churning; he was close to blowing his load.

Liara felt this as she sped up the intake of his rod. She wanted to milk his organ of every last drop of cum.

It was too much for Shepard to handle.

"AHHH FUCKKK!" He grabbed her head as he came with a triumphant roar. Hot streams of his milk shot into the woman's mouth and she refused to take her mouth off the pulsating organ. He shot four...five...six long squirts into her mouth before subsiding into normal flows then little dribbles. When he was finally finished, she released his dick with a pop as it exited her mouth.

"Was that good for you baby?" She said as she licked her lips with a purr, wiping a few drops of cum off of her delectable lips with her fingers.

Damon took note of her seductive motions and his cock also took notice, almost springing back to full attention.

"Mmm you bet it was good, baby girl. But don't think we are through just yet." Damon said as he scooped the lithe asari into his arms and took her out of the shower.

"Ahh! Commander!" Liara uttered,, letting out a stream of giggles and burying her face in the V of his neck and kissing him all along it. Damon grabbed a towel, plush and brown, off the rack adjacent to the shower.

He slowly drug it along Liara's body, wiping away all the remaining water from her body in a sensual motion.

"Ahhhh..." a low moan erupted from her lips as the human brought the cloth to her slit. Her back arched as he reached further down. Soon his clothed fingers were rubbing against her clit, first in slow circles then speeding up to rapid circles.

Jagged, excited low moans came from Liara as Shepard worked her over.

"Don't tease me...please..." She begged, he loved it when she begged.

"Oh is this what you want?" he continued to tease as he slinked up her body to line the lovers up. He tantilzingly rubbed his cock along her entrance, causing deeper moans to come from the woman. She suddenly sprung up and began to kiss his neck. He knew she was trying in her own way to spur him on to plow into her.

He moaned low as her kisses became more aggressive, she was putting up a good show and he had to compete.

He slowly lowered his hips until the head of penis was ruing against the entrance of her love canal.

"Are you ready for me?" Shepard asked with a mischievous grin that would make a Krogan blush.

"I'm always rea...Ahhh!" Liara started to say but Shepard cut her off by impaling himself fully within her warm, velvety core.

Her eyes rolled back into her head as she felt herself be filled to the brim, his length be swallowed wholly by her pussy.

"By the Goddess that always feels amazing..." Liara groaned as she felt Shepard begin to slowly pump in and out of her. She felt like she was going to be split in half by him, his cock reaching all the way inside her. Sometimes he bumped against her cervix every now and again.

"You feel great too Liara...damn do you do Kegal exercises or something? You are so tight" Shepard moaned as he sped up his thrusting and rested his head against Liara's heaving boobs

The only way Liara could answer was by moaning louder as she grabbed his head and forced his mouth towards a nipple. Shepard got the message and latched onto the closest one with a wet kiss. Liara's back arched as she felt his tongue going over his nipple

"Goddess...Shep..Shepard...Embrace Eternity!" Liara managed to stammer out as her eyes blackened and she joined the two's nervous systems. The joining's sudden implementation caused both lovers to cry out in pure delight as they both could feel each others arousal and pleasue.

"Damn I love it when you do that!" Shepard groaned as he began to recklessly plow into Liara, again and again, causing the bed to rattle and squeak.

"Yess baby! Fuck me harder...Faster!" Liara beckoned as her whole body started to tremble and quake.

"Dammit!" Shepard grunted as he could feel both lovers coming dangerously close to orgasm.

"I g..going.. ..too cum s...ssoon" Liara bumbled inbetween thrusts of Damon hips as she clawed at his back.

Damon brought her legs up to his shoulders so he could penetrate deeper into that glorious pussy.

"Ahh there we go!" he exclaimed as he pounded away. He put his hand behind Liara's head and brought her up to kiss her. She moaned into his kisses and she felt herself begin to reach the point of no return.

Her breathing was ragged and her thighs spasmed out of control, her toes curling madly. She weakly gasped as the euphoria slowly wore off; her whole body came down from ecstasy.

Shepard was also beginning to plateau. His head was swimming, and looking into Liara's rolled back eyes he knew that she was about to burst. It was too much for the both of themselves

"Liara, I'm gonna cum!" Shepard moaned as he threw his head back.

"Cum inside me, my love!" She responded as Damon felt Liara's muscles clenching his manhood tightly, her muscles convulsing as a series of generous spurts came forth as he ejaculated deep into her. Her breathing was ragged and her thighs spasmed out of control, her toes curling madly. She weakly gasped as the euphoria slowly wore off; her whole body came down from ecstasy.

Liara adored the feeling of the human emptying his hot seed into her. His hands were gently caressing her lower midsection. Even with his soft touch clouding her senses and the heat of their lovemaking, she could still feel the immense heat inside her, from both his large penis still fully sheathed within her, and the large amount of hot seed it had spilled within her.

Shepard was still holding her tightly a few minutes after their joint release had died down, his member barely signs of softening. Eventually, Liara broke the silence.

"Goddess, you were amazing as ever darling"

"Thank you Liara, you weren't too bad yourself." Damon replied as he slowly pulled out of Liara's crevice, his cock coming out of her folds with a sloppy plop.

Shepard rolled onto his back and Liara rolled over, wrapped an arm around him and nestled her head against his chest as she planted a few kisses on it.

"Its been a long while since we slept together huh?" Shepard said with his eyes closed, as he put an arm around her.

"Hasn't it? I miss it, remember on the Normandy we would sleep together every night after we got together? Those were awesome nights." Liara replied as she snuggled closer against him, her voice softening as the weariness of the day started to catch up to her.

Damon picked up on this, and he could feel himself beginning to drift off into sleep. He rubbed the asari's fringes bringing a pleasant coo from her. He continued to rub them and he placed kisses on her forehead.

"Mmmmm, I love you...I love you much Shepard."

"I love you too Liara... I'm glad you are here with me. There's nobody I would rather have by my side."

"You are too sweet."

"I try, but I do have a question...How did you know that I did you know that I sent Garrus back to the Normandy so we could be alone?" Shepard asked kind of puzzled

Liara just snickered. "Well...I am the Shadow Broker after all.

"Dammit, I really can't get anything get past you at all." He said with a sigh as the two lovers drifted off to sleep.


End file.
